Freedom Phones the Future of Dissent on the 50Th Anniversary of the Free Speech Movement Dean’Sword

College of Engineering University of California, Berkeley Fall 2014 Body mechanics Into the light Launching ‘dev eng’ Volume 6 Hacking anatomy Xiang Zhang’s XLab A new field emerges Berkeleyengineer

Freedom phones The future of dissent on the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement Dean’sWord

Engineering global solutions Extreme poverty is not a new problem. But given the widening of globalized markets and the confluence of leapfrog technologies—including access to mobile telecommunications and niche manufacturing operations—enormous opportunities now exist to eradicate the root causes of global poverty. It is clear that traditional top-down models of international development are limited: material aid leads to dependence; well-meaning policies become mired by Training the next political instability. In addition to market forces and access to technology, it will take human capital generation of engineers to build human capacity. That is why we take our responsibility to train the next generation of engineers very seriously. Recognizing trends in the global landscape, the U.S. Agency for International to tackle the root causes Development (USAID)—the country’s largest international aid agency—recently signaled a change in tactics. With a collaborative, fast-moving posture (more Silicon of global poverty Valley than Inside-the-Beltway), USAID administrators have made a commitment to ending extreme forms of poverty by 2030. With USAID’s support, we opened the Development Impact Lab (DIL) on campus in 2012 to design, execute and scale poverty-alleviating systems and technologies. The grant is managed by the Blum Center for Developing Economies and the Center for Effective Global Action in Economics, and includes many engineering faculty who have answered the call for socially responsible development engineering. As an outgrowth of the DIL mission, and in response to an outpouring of student and faculty demand, this semester we launched a development engineering designated emphasis (the graduate equivalent of a minor) for Ph.D. students. Many of the students in the program are engineers, but others come from economics, business and other quantitative disciplines. (Read more on page 2.) While much of DIL’s focus is on international solutions, in the words of advisory board member Arun Sarin, solutions often “boomerang” back to the developed world in the form of financial inclusion, arsenic-free drinking water for the Central Valley and so on. Beyond our ethical and societal obligations, aggressively pursuing solutions to alleviate global poverty through smart infrastructure, adaptable technologies and inclusive systems will create better global adaptability and resiliency in times when the world’s big problems show no signs of recognizing international borders. As always, I welcome your thoughts and ideas.

—S. Shankar Sastry Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering Director, Blum Center for Developing Economies Matt Beardsley

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Dean Sastry oversees construction of Jacobs Hall. Home to the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, the LEED-certified building—to open in fall 2015—will serve as a hub for hands-on learning for undergraduates. in this issue Berkeleyengineer Fall 2014

2 3 6 12 19 launching ‘dev eng’ The big picture Great Optics body mechanics Alum Tami bond A new field emerges Averaging Internet images Harnessing light for circuitry Hacking anatomy New MacArthur Fellow . Brian S tauffer D aniel McGlynn L

more > 2-5 UPFRONT 6-7 Breakthroughs 14 Whe re vision meets Comments Sight for sore eyes know-how Smarter stethoscopes Rejuvenating old muscles Xiang Zhang’s XLab Q&A with Grace O’Connell Evolutionary algorithms 17-20 Alumni nOTES Girls in Engineering Herding cells with electricity Spotlights 8 F reedom phones Farewell The future of dissent on the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement

> Cover photo noah berger

dean S. Shankar Sastry Berkeley Engineer is published twice yearly to showcase the excellence of Berkeley Engineering faculty, alumni and students. assistant dean, college relations Melissa Nidever Published by: UC Berkeley College of Engineering, Office of Marketing & Communications, 312 McLaughlin Hall #1704, Berkeley, CA 94720-1704, phone: 510-643-6898, website: engineering.berkeley.edu executive editor Karen Rhodes Reach editors: [email protected] managing editor kap Stann Change of address? Send to: [email protected] Associate editor Daniel McGlynn Donate online: engineering.berkeley.edu/give, or mail to: Berkeley Engineering Fund, 308 McLaughlin Hall #1722, contributors Preston Davis Berkeley, CA 94720-1722, phone: 510-642-2487 Julianna Fleming Jennifer Huber © 2014 Regents of the University of California / Not printed at state expense. Miranda King Please recycle. This magazine was produced from eco-responsible material. kirsten Mickelwait thomas Walden Levy sarah Yang designer Alissar Rayes Upfront

new programs Launching ‘dev eng’ A new Ph.D. specialty in development engineering teaches students how to build, scale and evaluate technologies designed to combat extreme poverty and other complex international development issues. “Development engineering is a new interdisciplinary field that integrates engineering with economics and business, energy and natural resource development and social sciences,” says Alice Agogino, Hughes Professor of mechanical engineering. To build an academic framework for “dev eng,” Berkeley faculty members with research expertise in related areas formed a development engineering graduate group last year. The group is establishing a research agenda that includes human-centered design and requires innovators to develop “multiple skills in ethnographic studies, qualitative research, hardware, analytical tools, hypothesis testing, prototyping, business model development and continuous impact analysis,” says Agogino, who chairs the group. With the support of Berkeley’s Blum Center for Developing Economies, the group launched a designated emphasis in development engineering for doctoral students this fall. The special- ization is open to Ph.D. candidates across campus, including students pursuing research in social sciences with quantitative components, such as public health or social welfare.

Courtesy William Tarpeh In 2012, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded Berkeley $20 million to start the Development Impact Lab (DIL). William Tarpeh, a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering, works on a sanitation project The lab supports academic research and a community of faculty in Nairobi, Kenya. His goal is to develop technologies to make marketable products out of and students interested in development engineering. nitrogen recovered from urine. “The designated emphasis is really meaningful,” Tarpeh says, “because it recognizes the interstitial space that otherwise just isn’t recognized.” “A number of faculty were engaged with the DIL lab and students doing these projects, but as one-offs in various groups without mentoring outside their discipline,” Agogino says. “The creation of this multidisciplinary program was a natural fusion coming from a compelling need.”

“ ” comments ..! Friends, followers and readers: Thanks for your comments. Here is a recent sampling.

Re: “Engineering social justice,” Berkeley Engineer, spring 2014 Re: “The last firewall,” Berkeley Engineer, spring 2014 I was extremely happy to learn that an “engineering in society” course In the last issue, the juxtaposition of an article on mind-reading technol- was still being taught at Cal. Looking back on my career and personal ogy and one on social justice was not likely lost on readers. While EECS evolution, it’s that course I took back in 1978 that I remember the most. professor Jan Rabaey pointed to the need to develop technical solu- It shaped my thinking about what it was to be an engineer, yes, but tions sooner than later, what’s missing is a broader conversation about more importantly, a just and positively contributing member of society. whether mind-reading technology is something we want to develop at At the time, this topic was rarely taught in harder STEM paths across all. We have a culture that promotes and rewards the heroic principal the country, and I was very proud that Cal had the foresight to offer it. investigator who pushes the limits of science like Prometheus bringing Engineers gravitate toward the profession because of their love of things, the gift of fire back to the clan. Only too late do we understand and react but an engineer’s true purpose is to translate scientific discoveries into to the unintended effects of these discoveries, such as greenhouse gases, societal benefits. For this, one must have not only a sharp intellect and nanoparticles, endocrine disruptors and GMOs. The university promotes a pragmatic outlook, but also open eyes, mind and especially heart. a myriad of micro changes to our complex system, and we as a society As pointed out in the piece, the “control volume” for any engineering are left reeling with the large systemic changes that emerge as a conse- problem must include its environment and its people. quence. Indeed, when have we, in 500 years of the Enlightenment, ever —Shaun Simpkins, B.S.’79 EE, via e-mail decided against technical advancement? —Tse-Sung Wu, B.S.’89 ME, via e-mail

How do I find out more? 2 engineering.berkeley.edu Find links to web extras through the college website at engineering.berkeley.edu/magazine. computer vision The big picture Finding the Internet cat The AverageExplorer is a tool designed to better search digital visual data. The new software, developed along with doctoral student Jun-Yan Zhu and former post-doctoral researcher Yong Jae Lee, is one of EECS professor Alexei Efros’s latest projects. “We have this enormous collection of images on the web, but much of it remains unseen by humans. People have called it the ‘dark matter’ of the Internet. We wanted to figure out a way to quickly visualize this data by systematically ‘averaging’ the images,” Efros says about the project. Unlike text-based data that can be organized and searched relatively easily, no intuitive system exists for indexing visual information. AverageExplorer addresses that problem by Noah Berger EECS professor Alexei Efros compiling millions of images into one average image. Users can then refine the search by This past fall, in the wide-open spaces Efros says. “You can’t understand it just adding visual constraints to the query using across campus, students from Alexei with equations; you need to have the data basic image-editing tools, such as strokes, Efros’s computational photography class because our world is so rich and there is were easy to spot—they were the ones so much entropy in it.” brushes and warps. taking camera obscura pictures with image- For example, to find images of a particular Efros balances data-heavy computer capturing devices made from shoeboxes. vision research with creative computer species of cat from among the vast sea of The point, says Efros, who joined the graphics work. “You get to hack, code and Internet cat images, a user starts with a massive Berkeley faculty last year as an associate play with computers. What comes out on professor in electrical engineering and compilation. With AverageExplorer tools they can the other end are often beautiful—some- computer sciences, was for students “to then narrow down the results based on specific times bizarre, sometimes intriguing— become one with the photons.” visual representations, visual narratives visual characteristics, such as color or ear Efros is part of the Visual Computing Lab. even,” he says. “To me, that is very appeal- length, yielding a new average image. His research combines computer graphics ing aesthetically.” Beyond cats, potential applications for the and computer vision to investigate larger Being creative while wrestling with big AverageExplorer include online shopping and concepts related to the visual aspects of research questions is a priority for Efros. artificial intelligence. “It’s a multidisci- further refining computer vision and computer He once contemplated pursuing a career plinary problem connecting philosophy, graphics systems based on data collected as a theater director. He hopes more art neuroscience and developmental psy- students will take his computational from users. chology.” Efros says. “It really goes to the photography class in the future. heart of who we are.” Efros’s research is also informed by his The Internet is awash with visual data. poor eyesight. “For me, this fascination for Given our current ability to access and large amounts of data definitely comes process information, most of that data is from personal experience—there is this inaccessible. “I hope to make visual data incredible power that prior experience a first-class citizen,” says Efros. “Right has on what you perceive. If I have been now the transfer of information is tied to a place many times, then I think that to language. I love literature, but there is I’m seeing way more than I’m actually much more to the visual world. There are seeing. In a familiar environment, my so many things that we just don’t have brain fills in the details,” he says. the words for.” “I realized how having lots of data makes all Using computation like cheesecloth, com- of the difference, and this is true for every- puter-vision researchers filter massive one, not just for people with poor sight.” amounts of data into digestible nuggets of information. “To understand our visual Courtesy the researchers world you need to have a lot of data,”

Berkeleyengineer 3 Upfront

devices Smarter stethoscopes As an engineer with a passion for medicine, Connor Landgraf (B.S.’13, M.Eng.’14 BioE) started designing digital enhancements for stethoscopes as an undergraduate. With guidance from bioengineering professor Amy Herr, Landgraf continued this work with fellow master of engineering students Jiarong Fu, Zhengda Zhao and Robert Sibilia (all M.Eng.’14 BioE), as the team’s capstone project.

Problem According to Landgraf, up to 80 percent of new primary care physicians don’t receive enough training to accurate- ly diagnose common heart problems with standard “analog” stethoscopes. Existing audio-amplification devices for stethoscopes are pricey and unpopular with physicians, many of whom prefer classic stethoscopes. Solution The team took a two-pronged approach to making classic stethoscopes smarter. First, they designed a Bluetooth- enabled hardware device, which is placed between the stethoscope bell and the rubber tubing delivering sound to a clini- cian’s ears. A slender conical attachment amplifies and digitizes heart sounds, recording an audio clip and sending it, along with a waveform image, to a secure, cloud-based server via a smartphone. This makes findings easy to process through the second tool Landgraf’s team is developing: a proprietary algorithm Noah Berger able to discern the difference between Chestpiece connector normal and abnormal heart sounds. This will provide what Landgraf calls “real-time decision support.” Power switch Result This hardware-software-data- Volume control base combo has the potential to save lives LED and eliminate billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending on cardiology referrals and electrocardiograms. A study Earpiece connector in the British Journal of Cardiology in 2001 found that up to 60 percent of cardiology referrals were based on errone- ous diagnoses, a figure the team aims to drastically reduce. In 2013, the smart stethoscope team joined Berkeley’s SkyDeck incubator and named their fact venture Eko (pronounced “echo”) Be Devices. They anticipate FDA Berkeley ranks as the approval this fall. Meanwhile, a local #2 university producing hospital is beta-testing the device. VC-backed entrepreneurs Source: Pitchfork Cou rtes y Eko Devices

4 engineering.berkeley.edu Q+A with Grace O’Connell

Grace O’Connell joined the Berkeley Engineering faculty in August 2013 as an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and was a post-doctoral researcher at Columbia. We asked her about her background and her first year at the college. Matt Beardsley

When did you know you wanted to become an engineer? lab. We look at the mechanical function of native tissue to try I was always fiddling with things as a kid, and then I took an to mimic this function in the repair tissue we create. engineering class at my high school in Philadelphia. Both my What has your introduction to the Berkeley campus been like? parents were computer programmers, so that may have also influenced me. As a girl, I was definitely in the minority in my I’m finding the culture here to be very open to collaboration classes, but I was so focused on my studies, I wasn’t even aware and working across disciplines—there’s a real generosity in of it until I was a senior in college. sharing information. In the biomechanics group, for example, lab space is shared across multiple labs to encourage cross-talk Why did you choose mechanical engineering in particular? and collaboration. As an undergraduate, I originally studied aerospace engineering. As an instructor in the Girls in Engineering camp in July, what was it In graduate school, I switched over to have a more direct impact like to be a role model for young women? on people’s lives. My work is biologically based. I have colleagues in bioengineering departments at other schools who do similar There’s a big challenge ahead to balance the gender numbers research to mine. It all depends on how each university struc- in the engineering professions. Research indicates that girls are tures its departments. usually around middle school age when they become turned off to math and science. At the Girls in Engineering camp, I was Your research focuses on tissue engineering and spinal biomechanics. excited to see how many of the campers dove right in, experi- What are the applications of your work? menting with tissue samples. In my own lab, I’ve tried to create Around 80 percent of adults will experience back pain in their a diverse workforce—it’s currently a 60/40 male-to-female ratio. lifetime. I’m studying soft-tissue degeneration so we can grow a And because I’m half African, half American, I’m sensitive to biological repair strategy. We use cells to grow new tissues in the racial diversity as well.

STEM pipeline the summer camps were part of the college’s commitment to increasing the ranks of women in Girls in Engineering technology. Research shows that by high school age, This summer, the college launched an outreach many girls have already dismissed the potential of program for middle school girls designed to bring careers in engineering. engineering to life and inspire the girls to pursue Supported by grants from the National Science an education in STEM fields. Led by women faculty Foundation, General Electric and the Baskin and graduate students, the camp was also designed Foundation, two weeklong sessions included to instill the confidence needed to master both the hands-on projects in nanotechnology, robotics, hard and soft skills required of engineering leaders. optics and more, as well as field trips to nearby Pixar Offered free to students from five East Bay schools, Animation Studios and Lawrence Hall of Science. Matt Beardsley

Berkeleyengineer 5 Breakthroughs

circuits Great optics Harnessing light with photonic integrated circuits on silicon promises to catalyze powerful new applications in energy- efficient telecommunications, computing and more, as standard electronic circuits did in the past. This requires photonic devices to be integrated into dense, high- performing circuits, which may now be possible using semiconductor nanostructures developed in the lab of Connie Chang-Hasnain, Whinnery Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences. Her team has designed a robust toolkit of nano-optoelectronic circuit elements—including light emitters, photodetectors, a photovoltaic power supply and optical links to connect these devices into circuits—that were found to perform as well as their traditional counter- parts. Chang-Hasnain and her students discovered a new method to grow light- efficient nano-resonators on a silicon substrate. Then they can use conventional nanofabrication techniques to make pho- Noah Berger tonic integrated circuits, making product Whinnery Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences manufacturing easier down the line. Connie Chang-Hasnain was named associate dean for strategic alliances in July.

vision Sight for sore eyes What if everyone could clearly see their smartphone, tablet, computer and TV screens without having to wear eyeglasses? Brian Barsky, professor of computer science and vision science and affiliate professor of optometry, teamed up with colleagues at MIT to improve vision-correcting display technology. Using an iPod for their prototype, they devised algorithms to make adjustments in the display to compensate for various vision impairments. They designed ways to manipulate the inten- sity of light emanating from each pixel and added a perfo- rated touchscreen “mask” to further control light and sharpen focus. Given an eyeglasses pre- scription, researchers can now pre-correct the display to enable that user to see the screen in sharp focus without glasses. The technology could not only help millions who wear glasses, but it could also be transformative for those with vision problems that cannot be corrected by eyeglasses. “People who are unable to view displays are at a disadvantage in the workplace as well as in other aspects of their lives,” says Barsky.

6 engineering.berkeley.edu hormones

Rejuvenating old muscles genes Your muscles grow larger and stronger the researchers found that it improved from birth until your thirties, when they muscle regeneration to a level compara- Evolutionary naturally start to lose mass, strength and ble to young mice, with no ill effects. “This mobility. Now, bioengineering researchers demonstrates that extra oxytocin boosts have discovered that oxytocin—the hor- aged tissue stem cells without making algorithms mone associated with maternal nurtur- muscle stem cells divide uncontrollably,” Darwin was the first to marvel at the ing, social attachments, childbirth and explains project scientist Wendy Cousin. diversity of life that natural selection has sex—may combat this age-related muscle Also, by experimentally inhibiting oxyto- produced, given that the evolutionary wasting. Led by associate professor Irina cin, researchers detected premature aging forces of “survival of the fittest” and diver- Conboy, Berkeley researchers found in adult mice. Cousin noted that related sity appear to be in opposition. “There that mice required oxytocin for healthy investigations will determine if oxytocin is is a paradox in evolution,” says Umesh muscle maintenance and repair, and a viable alternative to hormone replace- Vazirani, Strauch Professor of electrical oxytocin levels in blood and receptors in ment therapy to impede the effects of engineering and computer sciences and muscle stem cells reduce with age. When aging in humans. director of Berkeley’s Quantum Informa- they injected oxytocin into older mice, tion and Computation Center. “Suppose the mixing of genes through sexual recombination helps create a perfect individual. That perfection gets lost in the next generation, because the off- spring inherits only half the perfect par- ent’s genes.” Vazirani and his colleagues have developed an algorithm that helps demystify this paradox, demonstrating that diversity results from the selection process as well as genetic mutations. They noticed that genes prefer a 50-50 distribution; even if there is an extremely successful genetic trait, evolution doesn’t want lesser traits to become extinct. Their algorithm works to maximize the trade- off between going all-in on a successful genetic trait and hedging bets by not Before After committing to any one specific trait. This type of algorithm has been used in com- Irina Conboy’s bioengineering lab found that aging muscle cells in mice naturally degenerate (at left), but appear puter science, statistics and economics, revitalized after oxytocin is administered (at right). but researchers have now discovered that it can be applied to nature, as well.

currents Herding cells with electricity Drawing inspiration from sheep dogs that herd their flock, researchers are now able to similarly herd biological cells for tissue engineering. Led by associate professor Michel Maharbiz from electrical engineering and computer sciences and bioengineering graduate student Daniel Cohen, the researchers found that an electrical current can orchestrate the migration of groups of cells. By applying electrical current to single layers of epithelial cells (binding cells that line organs and body cavities), they were able to herd cells from side to side or to make U-turns. With stencils, they sorted cells into shapes—including the familiar shape of the Cal bear—and investigated effects on electri- fied cell motion. One application of this cell-herding technology could be smart bandages: with a grid of electrodes, bandages could stimulate currents into wounds to expedite healing. _ + How do I find out more? Find links to web extras through the college website at engineering.berkeley.edu. Berkeleyengineer 7 Freedom phones The future of dissent on the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement

Story by paul preuss • Photos by noah berger

On January 28, 2011, the news was ev- However, says Ben-David, “if a system although, because he was a teenager, his erywhere: just after midnight in Egypt, is delay-tolerant”—if messages can wait name wasn’t made public until long after the Mubarak regime had cut off most a while before they are passed along— the authorities had tracked him down. Internet and cell phone service to 82 “some things, like smartphones, can Growing up the son of schoolteachers million citizens, and tens of thousands of work,” by functioning as nodes on the in the village of Tiv’on in northern Israel, them were already moving toward Cairo’s move. “Mobility is both a challenge and an Ben-David says he was not a good student Tahrir Square for what would become a advantage.” and was later diagnosed as dyslexic. “I decisive “Friday of Anger.” Anonymity is essential in a dissent was math-challenged and still am. But “Damn, this is a pretty extreme form network, as Ben-David had also learned I found if I could teach myself, I could of censorship,” was Yahel Ben-David’s first from experience. Not mere pseudonymity; flourish.” reaction. A Ph.D. candidate in electri- phony IDs are easy to crack when a gov- Socially active, a community volun- cal engineering and computer sciences, ernment controls the infrastructure and teer, a motorcycle racer from the tender Ben-David is an expert in citizen access has access to what’s known in cybersecu- age of 13 and a rock climber by 18, he to communications. When a government rity lingo as “out-of-band” information— was far from a stereotypical nerd, and in that controls the infrastructure decides knowledge gained, in essence, by the fact calls himself an “adrenaline junkie.” to shut it down, what kind of “dissent government spying on its citizens. Yet computers were his passion. He built network” would it take for people to stay Knowing what wouldn’t work, Ben- his own modem, which meant sleeping in touch? David set out to recruit fellow students on the floor: the circuitry took up the Ben-David’s research had turned and faculty in the College of Engineering entire surface of his bed. In 1984, as a up “many papers, but nothing practi- to help him create a system that could high-school junior, he gained anonymous cal.” Much theoretical work focuses on function discreetly when networks are infamy when he used his Commodore 64 wireless mesh networks, with multiple down, reach as many people as necessary (all 64k RAM) to hack into Israel’s biggest wifi nodes that can reroute around local and protect the identity of its users. newspaper and plant a front-page article failures by means of overlapping cover- lambasting an unpopular teacher, using Learning from the real world age. From his own experience, Ben-David the byline of one of the paper’s leading Yahel Ben-David is not your usual doc- knew that “mesh networks that try to journalists. toral student. Now in his mid-40s, he maintain full Internet connectivity don’t Like most young Israelis, Ben-David served in the Intelligence Corps of the scale well—the more nodes, the less went straight from high school into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), co-founded a capacity in each.” Even legally permissible IDF, where—not least because they were successful Internet security and services cell phone towers or rooftop antennas aware of his hacking adventures—the company with headquarters in Silicon could attract unwelcome attention to Intelligence Corps already had its eye on Valley and built an innovative wifi mesh dissenters. him. He spent over four years in intelli- network that brought the Internet to rural gence, in cybersecurity and on the ground northern India. Before all that, he was in Lebanon. one of Israel’s most notorious hackers— 8 engineering.berkeley.edu The future of dissent on the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement

—Yahel Ben-David and Barath Raghavan of the De Novo Group have designed Rangzen, a smartphone app to support dissenters and protect identities. Berkeleyengineer 9 In 1993, after active service, Ben-David Having visited Indian cities on business, During his travels to and from joined two IDF friends to co-found the Ben-David wasn’t eager. “But I fell in love Dharamsala, Ben-David met Yael Perez, a Xpert Group, a networking and security with rural India.” He says, “I had never triathlon competitor trained in architec- consultancy firm. They soon scored a considered myself a philanthropist—some ture, committed to using design to ad- business coup by winning the contract to considered me ruthless. India wholly shaped dress the needs of underserved commu- establish Morocco’s government-owned my awareness of social issues.” In 1999, nities. They married and, in 2004, moved Internet service, the country’s first. The he sold his holdings in the Xpert Group. to Dharamsala. 40-page request-for-proposal, mostly The Tibetans’ security problems were By 2006, however, Ben-David was verses from the Koran, reflected a con- formidable, and opened his eyes to issues commuting again, now to Berkeley, where cern “to protect youth from the horrors of of privacy and anonymity that had never Perez was enrolled in a doctoral program the Internet,” Ben-David says, “but their before concerned him. He knew from his in the College of Environmental Design. core needs were straightforward, and our security work that existing technological Ben-David joined Technology and Infra- four-page proposal beat out major inter- solutions were inadequate. “I was supposed structure for Emerging Regions (TIER), the national players.” to teach the technology, and I did. But I also research group founded by EECS professor When the Xpert Group moved its told them not to over-trust it. I had little Eric Brewer, whom he’d met at an AirJaldi headquarters to Silicon Valley, Ben-David faith in technology up against ‘rubber-hose conference. Commuting ended when kept an apartment in San Francisco but cryptography.’” Ben-David told Brewer, “I guess I’ll be here never unpacked his boxes. “I was always Meanwhile, he introduced the a while. I’m going to be a daddy.” on a plane somewhere. Life was about Internet to the Himalayan foothills. Building a dissent network making money.” Then a friend called from The company he founded, AirJaldi, has When Egypt shut down the Internet, Dharamsala, India, home of the Dalai extended broadband coverage outward Ben-David went into high gear. Clan- Lama. “He said, ‘We’re getting hammered, from Dharamsala with a series of low- destine restoration of instantaneous and we need help.’” power wifi nodes on short masts planted Internet access was clearly impractical, on mountain peaks and hilltops. but a delay-tolerant network, in which

10 engineering.berkeley.edu it is sent. “The algorithm trusts a message download the app to their phones. While if the sender and receiver share many they had to understand caveats such as mutual friends,” Fanti explains. “The basic battery drain from having their phones assumption is that government agents almost always on, the volunteers didn’t have fewer friends.” need to give their names. Ben-David had meanwhile joined Says Raghavan, “We didn’t care who forces with Brewer to found the De Novo they were by name, because the first test Group, a nonprofit corporation affiliated was to establish that the system works with the Center for Information Technol- for communication. On top of Rangzen’s ogy Research in the Interest of Society normal version we built a measurement (CITRIS) through their data and democ- layer, reporting to a server that all users racy initiative. Ben-David describes De could access. It shows where you were Novo’s purpose as “making sure disser- when you encountered another user and tations don’t stay on the shelf but help exchanged messages.” people.” Through De Novo, Rangzen is Rangzen began preliminary testing in supported by a grant from the U.S. State July 2014. Tests, simulations and analysis “The basic Department’s Bureau of Democracy, indicate that during an Internet blackout Human Rights and Labor. Rangzen can spread “honest” messages To build a Rangzen trust graph, users (time and place of a rally, say) to over 80 assumption is must first establish authentic, “out-of- percent of the user population in less band” trust relationships, best done by than two days, with “adversarial” messages that government meeting friends face-to-face. Thereafter all (a false time and place, say) considerably identities—including other contacts in the fewer and later. agents have face-to-face friends’ lists—are mathemati- “In a nutshell,” says Ben-David, “we cally scrambled and can’t be recovered have shown that Rangzen can work and from what Rangzen stores on a phone. that we can solve the remaining problems.” fewer friends.” In exchanging messages, the Rangzen Some are technical. “From a commer- —G iulia Fanti, EECS doctoral student and algorithm recognizes links, not identities. cial perspective, what we’re doing is un- privacy researcher for the De Novo Group The more links shared between the con- usual,” says Lerner. “Androids and iPhones tact lists of two users, the more trusted the require you to respond that you want to message and the higher its priority when connect. Rangzen needs opportunistic, it is passed along. Less trusted messages automatic connections. We can enable are transmitted last and deleted first. that, but we’re trying to find simpler ways Fanti worked with Barath Raghavan, in newer smartphone systems.” De Novo’s vice president and a senior A more basic obstacle, says Fanti, is researcher in networking and security that “we don’t yet understand how our at the International Computer Science approach will work in practical dissent set- Institute at Berkeley (ICSI), to validate tings. We can’t know ahead of time how a the algorithm’s security. “Giulia’s idea is powerful, government-level adversary will information would be exchanged on a a refinement of existing algorithms, but react.” In all Rangzen-like systems there scale of hours or days instead of seconds, really new in the sense that it has never may be a fundamental trade-off between might work. In this scheme, users’ phones been used in this way,” says Raghavan. how fast messages can propagate and the would automatically exchange stored “We had to validate that there existed anonymity of their senders. messages directly, via an app using the crypto primitives to do the friendship “It’s like there’s a big knob,” Ben-David smartphones’ built-in wifi or Bluetooth intersection in this specific context.” That says. “You can turn it one way for blanket wireless capacity, whenever they came is, they had to verify there were crypto- anonymity with slow propagation, or the within range of one another. graphic tools to compute the number of other way to fast propagation but more The name was easy: Rangzen is the mutual friends in a way that didn’t reveal risk. Where is it realistic to set that knob?” Tibetan word for freedom, liberty or inde- the names of either party’s friends to the The team has already been approached pendence. What wasn’t easy was protect- other. If that worked, they had to verify by dissent groups, he says. “We’re re- ing Rangzen’s users while achieving good that Rangzen could weed out messages luctant to work with them until we’re message propagation—a tolerably fast from the adversary. comfortable that anonymity is secure. This rate of spreading the word. To code Rangzen’s phone app and is a dangerous business. We’re not going to “The core problem was how to priori- design its interface, Fanti and Raghavan make claims we can’t substantiate.” tize what messages should be passed on— were joined by Adam Lerner, a Ph.D. student While adversarial gaming could help while maintaining anonymity,” Ben-David in computer science at the University of determine where to set the propagation- says. “I would not start work on anything Washington and De Novo’s systems securi- versus-anonymity knob, with some users else until I could solve this.” ty researcher, and Jesus Garcia, a Berkeley playing dissenters and others playing Giulia Fanti, a Ph.D. candidate study- undergrad majoring in computer science. agents trying to foil their plans, Ben-David ing censorship and privacy, volunteered to Teachers invited Rangzen team repre- has no illusions: “Eventually we’ll have to join the team. She provided the key, based sentatives to make short presentations to dive into cold water and get Rangzen to on her familiarity with “trust graphs”—a a number of College of Engineering classes, the people who need it.” message’s trust score determines whether during which they asked for volunteers to

Berkeleyengineer 11

S ystems L aboratory to build bridges between cognition and mechanical B erkeley’s B rain-Machine I nterface function in the form of neuropros - Jose Carmena leads efforts at thetics (at left, a postage stamp-sized neural interface, which is surgically BMI RE F LE X attached to the brain’s motor cortex). attached to the brain’s C armena has appointments in both EECS and neuroscience, his work draws from a variety of fields, including sensory-motor learning and control, neural intelligent systems,ensemble computation, robotics and computational biology. h Hig h resolu ti o n Steve Conolly specializes in novel medi - cal imaging and biosensing hardware. appointments in EECS and bioen - With gineering, C onolly researches magnetic particle imaging and magnetic reso nance imaging for enhanced diagnostics. A pplications include safe angiography for kidney disease patients, in-vivo cell therapy tracking, tuberculosis imaging, functional imaging and noninvasive, early-stage cancer diagnostic imaging.

tion by j a son lee

Berkeley engineers are building better bodies, one part at a time. Working across fields and across Working one part at a time. building better bodies, engineers are Berkeley disease detection to early from solutions ranging developing are researchers disciplines, hold the potential to improve advances These exoskeletons. implants and bionic-like brain of the most notable body of a few is a rundown Here quality of life for millions people. years. labs in recent Engineering’s come out of Berkeley that have hacks a I llustr

engineering le a b le Re: B ody mechanics rom her bioengineering lab, rofessor A my H err is building D eplo y P better diagnostic devices for clinical St e nt m a n Ritchie, a professorRobert of mechanical engineering and life prediction in biomedical implants, such as stents (pictured right) and pros - thetic heart valves. d i a gn os tic s applications (at right, a microfluidic device designed by Herr’s group can in human distinguish protein markers tears). F Herr aims to improve diagnostics by accelerating development of bioanalytical methods, streamline sample preparation studies and materials science, the microstructural mechanisms of hard mineralized tissue, including bones and teeth. His work in biomaterials extends to examining damage tolerance strategies and enhance biomarker strategies and enhance biomarker validation. 12 engineering.berkeley.edu -

S e c o n d sk in M ichel aharbiz , a professor in the EECS department, is develop - ing micro/nano interfaces to cells and exploring bio-derived fabrication methods. O ne of Maharbiz’s projects is e c e S p in e spa Grace O’Connell, on the mechanical models soft tissues engineering faculty, to study the biomechanics of cartilage and intervertebral discs. B y understand - ing the mechanical function of healthy, degenerated and injured intervertebral discs and applying tissue engineering and regeneration concepts, O ’ C onnell hopes to develop physiologically sound repair strategies. a sensor-laden smart bandage that can a sensor-laden detect electric signals produced during healing without the need to disturb wound. h Hig h resolu ti o n Steve Conolly specializes in novel medi - cal imaging and biosensing hardware. appointments in EECS and bioen - With gineering, C onolly researches magnetic particle imaging and magnetic reso nance imaging for enhanced diagnostics. A pplications include safe angiography for kidney disease patients, in-vivo cell therapy tracking, tuberculosis imaging, functional imaging and noninvasive, early-stage cancer diagnostic imaging.

t s -

a ul t ruitt looks to improve azerooni designs and builds in d ing f F runs stress tests on orthopedicLisa Pruitt orthopedic devices and tissues by better understanding structural relationships, biomaterials and medical polymers. implants and artificial joints. With appoint- implants and artificial joints. ments in mechanical engineering and bioengineering, P cializes exoskeletons internationally. cializes exoskeletons skeleton, which allows users to carryskeleton, 200-pound weights over any sort of terrain for an extended period of time K azerooni is alsowithout extra exertion. founder of E kso B ionics, which commer Weara b le ro o H omayoon K K azerooni and members of his lab also developed the Human U niversal L oad the first lower extremity exo C arrier, exoskeletons that enable paraplegics and exoskeletons people with challenged mobility to walk. A professor in mechanical engineering, St e nt m a n Ritchie, a professorRobert of mechanical engineering and life prediction in biomedical implants, such as stents (pictured right) and pros - thetic heart valves. and materials science, studies studies and materials science, the microstructural mechanisms of hard mineralized tissue, including bones and teeth. His work in biomaterials extends to examining damage tolerance

Berkeleyengineer 13 where vision meets know-how xiang zhang’s xlab

Xiang Zhang greets the visitor to his airy, that don’t occur in nature: “superlenses” Getting an idea off the ground can ground-floor office in Etcheverry Hall that capture light that ordinary lenses mean not worrying about feasibility too wearing cargo shorts, a colorful sport can’t see; tiny motors called “light mills,” quickly, a point Zhang makes by describ- shirt and a broad smile. He’s relaxed powered by beams of light; “invisibility ing a kooky scheme from his early years enough to be on vacation, a deceptive cloaks” to make objects vanish. on the UCLA faculty. “The neighborhood look for someone who holds the Ernest He calls his group of more than 30 was expensive, and a lot of the faculty S. Kuh chair as professor in the mechani- Ph.D. students, postdocs and visiting couldn’t afford housing. I came up with cal engineering department, directs the scientists the XLab, “not because we’re the idea of an inflatable apartment we National Science Foundation’s Na- mutants, but because we’re really look- could pump up at night, float up in the noscale Science and Engineering Center, ing for nontraditional research topics. X air—great views!—and come down in was recently appointed director of the stands for explore, for experiment, for the morning. We did a cost estimate; the materials sciences division at Lawrence excellence.” price was actually reasonable, compared Berkeley National Laboratory and who As much as depth of scientific think- to the market.” He laughs. “Housing for in less than two decades has published ing, Zhang seeks creativity in recruiting the future, maybe.” more than 240 papers in such journals as XLab members, even if their test scores Science, Nature and Physical Review. are not the absolute highest. “I might Into the XLab Zhang is a world leader in the bur- ask,” he speculates, “‘What would you Visionary from the start, metamaterials geoning field of photonic metamateri- like to do if you had unlimited re- are a young field of research, wide open als. He makes light perform astonishing sources?’ If the answer is ‘I want to go for exploration. Joining disparate com- tricks by means of artificial structures to Mars,’ I’d ask, ‘What would you need? ponents—metal versus insulator, say— How would you do it?’” 14 engineering.berkeley.edu where vision meets know-how

metamaterials owe their surprising new school of fish to a fetus in the womb; the higher than conventional ultrasound. properties not to chemistry or crystallog- fan-shaped array of 20-centimeter-long Detecting the in-phase or out-of-phase raphy but to their architecture. brass strips can focus meter-scale sound oscillation of the nano-arms, says O’Brien, “Everything we do begins in nature,” waves to a fraction of their wavelength. “is a step toward potential applications, says Zhang. “But we think of the natural The nanoscale, however, opens new vis- in principle including higher-resolution materials as ‘parents,’ lending their DNA tas for metamaterials. imaging.” to designs with properties the parents In the realm of acoustics, XLab Ph.D. Scale is a secondary concern for don’t have.” candidate Kevin O’Brien uses lasers in theorist Hamidreza Ramezani, an XLab To make these artificial structures Sutardja Dai Hall to create trillionth-of- postdoc. His whitewashed-concrete of- possible, the labyrinthine shops and a-second pulses that excite plasmons fice in Hesse Hall houses only a com- workstations of the XLab wind through (quantized waves of electrons) in gold puter; with it he is designing a unidi- three campus buildings, housing an nanostructures shaped like Swiss cross- rectional laser by applying quantum armory of tools including lasers, atomic es, having 90-nanometer short arms and mechanical principles and symmetries force microscopes, ion mills, electron 120-nanometer long arms. of time and parity (mirror symmetry) on beam evaporators and other precision “The cross-shaped nanostructures the scale of long-established classical instruments. heat up and expand rapidly to gener- physics. Metamaterials embrace such mac- ate coherent acoustic phonons,” O’Brien Instead of a traditional laser cav- rodevices as the XLab’s acoustic hyper- explains. These quantized sound waves ity with mirrors, “we’re looking for an lens, bringing high resolution to sonar travel through solids at 10 gigaherz, a open cavity that amplifies light in only and ultrasound images ranging from a frequency many hundreds of times one direction,” Ramezani says. “It’s an

Berkeleyengineer 15 optical structure that allows photons to A visionary bolt of lightning Collider started operations; its defunding take many different paths, but eventually The XLab’s evolving design methodolo- in 1993 caused an abrupt career switch. they find one way out, as a laser beam.” gies, Zhang says, make possible “new Zhang was soon pursuing a master’s de- The test version of this resonant cavity materials based on the imagination.” gree in environmental engineering at the combines three distinct materials. Most are destined to produce practical University of Minnesota. The metamaterial that Ph.D. student commercial advances in fields including “I designed a few monitoring devices David Barth is making in a cramped telecommunications, biomedicine and na- for air pollution, and I learned hard les- corner of Etcheverry Hall combines two tional security. Yet some of the most star- sons about instrumentation,” he says. materials that could hardly be more or- tling ideas are pure speculative science. The most fundamental lesson: “Creativity dinary: silicon and air. Using a technique In 2012 two independent groups, must be combined with practical skills.” called photoelectrochemical etching, Zhang’s at Berkeley and that of Nobel Working toward his 1996 Ph.D. at “we’re drilling little holes in the silicon, Prize-winning theorist Frank Wilczek at Berkeley, Zhang learned from mechanical most about 30 nanometers big,” Barth MIT, were musing on special relativity engineering professor Costas Grigoropoulos says. “We control the density and the size and the possibility of broken-time sym- “how to use laser light to pattern devices.” of the holes to change and control the metry—which suggested the possibility It unleashed his imagination. A few short refractive index of the material,” ma- of a “space-time crystal,” a clock to keep years later, Zhang was a full professor at nipulating the speed of light through the perfect time for eternity. UCLA, where he founded the first large material to steer its path. Zhang and postdoc Tongcang Li pro- metamaterials program in the U.S. A medium’s refractive index indicates posed a unique system of trapped ions, He returned to join Berkeley’s ME fac- how fast light travels through it; at index 1, rotating perpetually at their lowest quan- ulty in 2004 and today views himself as an the vacuum is fastest. Air’s refractive index tum energy level in a static magnetic field. applied scientist, but one who “sees things is only a few ten-thousandths greater “By leading to a breaking of time-trans- the other way around: I’m interested in than 1, while silicon, through which light lational symmetry, this makes time—for how technology enables new science.” travels slowly, has an index well over 3. A the first time!—discrete, not continuous That’s only part of the picture. Ask light ray traveling through pocked silicon as we experience it,” Zhang says. “This him where his all-embracing vision, from does not respond to the air holes, which exotic four-dimensional crystal is not only the mundane to the cosmic, could have are smaller than the light’s wavelength. periodic in space, but also in time.” originated, and his answer is quick: “I But the light bends or accelerates accord- Explorations of space-time only a little went to school during the Cultural Revo- ing to how the density of holes changes less far out are made possible by “con- lution. Crazy people were running the the refractive index. tinuous-index photon traps,” described schools. Education was done with.” To etch the hole patterns, Barth begins in 2009 by Zhang, visitor Dentcho Genov There was an upside, he says: no with nothing fancier than a PowerPoint and then-postdoc Shuang Zhang. In these homework and total freedom for the mind image projected onto the silicon wafer; the metamaterial devices, light behaves like to grow. To guide that growth he depended test case was a photo of Xiang Zhang him- massive bodies, allowing investigations on his father, a middle-school history self. Depending on the size and pattern of celestial mechanics, including black teacher. Zhang remembers when he was of the nanoscale holes, how light moves holes and other manifestations of general six or seven, and the two of them were through the material and emerges from it relativity, right on the lab benchtop. bicycling into a thunderstorm; they took can be controlled at will. Barth says, “Now Zhang’s fascination with physics be- shelter and watched the lightning streak that we can bend light in various inter- gan as an undergraduate at Nanjing Uni- across the sky. “My father said, ‘Someday esting ways, we’re making devices that versity. He then spent a year’s research someone will harvest all that energy.’” concentrate light where we want it.” at Fermilab, hoping to pursue particle “He wasn’t a scientist,” Zhang says, physics when the Superconducting Super “but he taught me you can think about anything.”

“If a student tells me they want to go to Mars, I’d say, ‘What would you need? How would you do it?’” —Xiang Zhang

16 engineering.berkeley.edu AlumniNotes

as an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering in 2011. Previously, Yoon was a researcher at the National Center for Excellence for Aviation Operations Research.

Bo Zou (Ph.D.’12 IEOR) joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Chicago as an assistant professor in the department of civil and materials engineering in 2012.

2000+

Soyoung (Sue) Ahn (M.S.’01, Ph.D.’05 CEE) is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with research interests in traffic flow theory and operations, intelligent transportation systems applications and traffic operation impacts on environment and safety.

Mikhail Chester (M.S.’05, Ph.D.’08 CEE) received the 2013 departmental teaching award from Arizona State Grace Kang (B.S.’81, M.Eng.’87 CEE), started her new position as director of communications at University, where he has served as an the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), just in time. Two weeks later, the Bay assistant professor of civil, environ- Area was hit with its largest earthquake since Loma Prieta, and a deluge of media inquiries, press mental and sustainable engineering releases and site observations descended on the center. A registered structural engineer, Kang since 2011. worked in engineering consulting for over 25 years. She is a director on the board of the Structural Engineers Association of California, was president of the Structural Engineers Association of North- Christian Claudel (M.S.’09, Ph.D.’10 ern California and served on the steering committee for “Loma Prieta 25: Still on Shaky Ground,” a EECS) has been an assistant professor public policy symposium marking the 25th anniversary of the 1989 quake. of electrical and mechanical engineering at King Abdullah University of Science photo Noah Berger and Technology in Saudi Arabia since 2010.

Nikolaos Geroliminis (M.S.’04, Adam Mendelsohn (Ph.D.’11 BioE), been awarded an Air-Sage-funded PASS Ph.D.’09 CEE) joined the faculty 2010+ Kayte Fischer (Ph.D.’10 BioE) and scholarship, one of only three in the of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lily Peng (Ph.D.’10 BioE) com- country. Lausanne as an assistant professor of Eleni Christofa (M.S.’08, Ph.D.’12 peted in the Berkeley Business Plan civil and environmental engineering in CEE) and Eric Gonzales (M.S.’07, Competition; several competitions Yoonjin Yoon (Ph.D.’10 CEE) joined 2009. Previously, Geroliminis was an Ph.D.’11 CEE) were married on June later, the classmates co-founded Nano the faculty of the Korea Advanced assistant professor at the University of 22, 2014 in Christofa’s hometown of Precision Medical, a start-up company Institute of Science and Technology Minnesota. Mytilini, Greece. Both are assistant developing implantable drug-delivery professors of civil and environmental systems. The company has raised engineering at the University of $3 million in financing and has eight Massachusetts, Amherst. Christofa employees. researches intelligent transportation systems, while Gonzales focuses on Volker Sorger (Ph.D.’11 ME), the operation, management and de- assistant professor at George Wash- sign of urban transportation systems. ington University in Washington D.C., won a young investigator research Amy Kim (M.S.’02, Ph.D.’11 CEE) program grant from the Air Force was an associate transportation engi- Office of Scientific Research to conduct neer at Dowling Associates, Inc. and research on nanophotonics devices a traffic engineer at Declan Corpora- with capabilities beyond classical tion before joining the faculty of the photonics limits. University of Alberta as an assistant professor of civil and environmental Daniel Tischler (M.S.’11 CEE), a engineering in 2011. transportation planner at San Francisco’s The new mobile-friendly College of Engineering website is stocked with useful county transportation authority, has information, timely news, lively videos and forms and tools to help you get things done—find us at our new URL:engineering.berkeley.edu.

Send your class notes to [email protected], or mail to: Berkeley Engineer, UC Berkeley College of Engineering, McLaughlin Hall #1704, Berkeley, CA 94720-1704. Berkeleyengineer 17 AlumniNotes

Anne Goodchild (M.S.’02, Ph.D.’05 at the University of Illinois, Urbana- the impact of high fuel prices on the CEE) joined the University of Washington Champaign since 2005. In 2010, transportation system. 1990+ faculty as an associate professor of Ouyang received the Xerox award for Orla Feely (M.S.’90, Ph.D.’92 EECS) civil and environmental engineering faculty research. Ouyang develops Athulan Vijayaraghavan (M.S.’05, has been appointed vice president in 2005. She directs UW’s Freight strategic, tactical and operational Ph.D.’09 ME) is chief technology for research, innovation and impact Mobility Lab and is associate director models and solutions for problems officer at Berkeley-based System at University College, Dublin. Feely of the freight operations research that arise in multidisciplinary areas Insights, a global supplier of manufac- joined the UCD faculty in 1992 and program. of transportation systems, network turing software. now heads up electronic engineering. optimization and logistics systems Arjun Gupta (B.S.’08 CEE) was planning. Daniel B. Work (M.S.’07, Ph.D.’10 J.D. Margulici (M.S.’99 CEE) named one of 37 Young Leaders of CEE) joined the faculty of the Univer- established his consultancy, Novavia 2014 by The Economic Times, one Megan Ryerson (M.S.’06, Ph.D.’10 sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Solutions, in 2010 and recently of India’s largest newspapers and the CEE) joined the faculty of the Univer- as an assistant professor in the embarked on a new venture by co- host of the competition, from a field of sity of Pennsylvania as an assistant department of civil and environmental founding Vehicle Data Science, where more than 20,000 applicants. professor of city and regional planning engineering in 2010. he serves as chief technology officer. and electrical systems in 2013. Previ- He reports that “life at home isn’t Yanfeng Ouyang (M.S.’05 IEOR, ously, she was an assistant professor at particularly quiet either,” with sons Ph.D.’05 CEE) has been on the civil the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Anthony and Mateo, both under five and environmental engineering faculty She researches fuel consumption and years of age.

Smart spoons Anupam Pathak’s (B.S.’04 ME) idea to build a device to assist people with Parkinson’s disease evolved from helping soldiers survive combat. Pathak started his doctoral research at the University of Michigan in 2004, at the height of U.S. troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Field reports revealed large numbers of troops facing stress-induced tremors during combat. A soldier with shaky hands is dangerous; tremors were actually affecting casualty rates. Pathak researched the actuator, the part of a weapon- stabilizing device that counters the tremor. By the time he graduated in 2009, he was thinking about other applications for stabilization technology and learned that more than 10 million people in the U.S. are facing tremor-related challenges. “It turns out that a solution does not exist for a lot of people,” Pathak says. After more than a year of R&D, Pathak founded Lift Labs in 2012. Their first product, Liftware, consists of a mechanized handle with different attachments. The sensor in the handle interacts with the actuator to counter the tremor in a user’s hand. While designing, building and getting feedback about Liftware, Pathak says he thinks back to an engineering ethics class he took as an undergraduate at Berkeley. “We were taught to think about who you are affecting by your work. I think that is so important in how we develop this product.” In September, Lift Labs was acquired by Google and will be part of Google’s life sciences division. Story and photo by Daniel McGlynn

18 engineering.berkeley.edu Sometime soon, Sylvain Costes (Ph.D.’99 NE, right) and Jonathan Tang (Ph.D.’10 BioE) hope that annual medical checkups will include a simple blood test to determine levels of DNA damage. The list of things assaultive to the body’s basic building blocks is long—radiation, ultraviolet light and toxins, to name a few— and errors occur even during normal cell division. The body con- tinually repairs this damaged DNA, but sometimes the routine repair process fails. DNA damage and genetic mutations can lead to serious health problems, like cancer, immunological disorders, neurological disorders and premature aging. To map DNA damage in tissue or blood samples, the Berkeley Lab scientists developed a new technology that automates mea- surements with a high-throughput microscope and proprietary image analysis software to spot DNA breaks. The result is a more accurate count, in a fraction of the time compared to conventional methods. The pair founded Exogen Biotechnology to translate their technology into an affordable product the public can use to Measuring DNA health monitor personal DNA health. Exogen technology can measure DNA damage levels from blood samples easily collected with an story by Jennifer Huber • photo Courtesy Exogen Biotechnology in-home kit. “To me, this will become the cholesterol test of cancer,” says Costes. “Your genetics place you in a certain range, but your lifestyle can change where you are within that range. In contrast to genetic testing, we feel like this test can bring hope—because you have a way to act.”

Jason Mikami (B.A.’92 East Asian Communications Commission. As a Languages, B.S.’98 EECS) is the computer science professor at UC owner of Mikami Vineyards, a small Irvine, Jordan was well-known for his family operation in Lodi that was research on net neutrality and Internet recognized in the July 2014 Wine pricing. He has previously served as a Enthusiast as a “trail-blazing” artisan congressional fellow on Internet and winery. telecommunications policy in the U.S. Senate and also on the FCC Open Jorge Prozzi (M.S.’98, Ph.D.’01 Internet Advisory Committee. CEE) is an assistant professor in the department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where 1970+ he chairs the international activities (M.S.’77 ME) worked committee of the transportation re- Howard Pines for more than 30 years in research search board. Prozzi joined the faculty and technology, earning five patents in 2002, after working as a technical Environmental engineer Tami Bond (M.S.’95 ME), professor in wireless voice technology before specialist at the Council for Scientific of civil and environmental engineering at the University of becoming a novelist. The Whale and Industrial Research for more than Song Translation is a scientific thriller Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was named a 2014 MacArthur a decade. “about an engineer, by an engineer Fellow. She was recognized for research that measures the global impacts of black carbon emission and atmospheric Karen Smilowitz (M.S.’98, Ph.D.’01 and for engineers,” says Pines. The CEE) is an associate professor of in- story follows an engineering professor pollution on human and environmental health. as he contacts another earthly species dustrial engineering and management Bond’s goal is to refine the integration of black carbon into sciences at Northwestern University. In of intelligence. In the 1960s, Pines was captivated by the race to the climate models to create a more comprehensive global 2012, she was a visiting professor at framework for how black carbon inventories and impacts the University of Newcastle, Australia moon, spurring his career in alterna- are quantified and classified. The first step is to develop in the school of mathematical and tive energy technology at Lawrence physical sciences. Berkeley National Laboratory. standardization for black carbon emission observations. The annual “genius” grant is given to professionals across Mark Schanfein (M.S.’74 MSE) is principal advisor of nonproliferation, a variety of disciplines as recognition for original thinking. 1980+ arms control and international safe- “My first reaction was not to have a reaction,” Bond told the guards at Pacific Northwest National Daily Cal. “I was so surprised. You don’t have any skills for Scott Jordan (B.S.’84, M.S.’87, Laboratory. He provides technical a moment like that. The very first reaction was blank shock.” Ph.D.’90 EECS) was named the leadership in development operations photo Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation chief technology officer of the Federal and implementation across multiple

Berkeleyengineer 19 AlumniNotes

governmental agencies, including the at UCLA while working at a naval 30 years, he has been designing Department of Energy and the Depart- 1960+ laboratory in 1970. He had worked restaurants. ment of Defense. for three aerospace companies in Jesse Ante (B.S.’68, M.S.’70 ME) sonar and new business acquisition retired this past July after 40 years George Tyris (B.S.’78 ME) has before retiring in 2001. He remains in the U.S. Air Force, PG&E and the published Tau Centi: A Ship from active with hiking, traveling and his 1940+ California Public Utilities Commission. Earth, the first in a series of novels model railroad hobby. chronicling the growth of a colony on A loyal alumni volunteer, Ante has Edwin Fong (B.S.’49 EE) worked a planet in the Tau Centi system. The mentored over 100 students through- for CalTrans from 1950–78 and the story follows the colony from a quiet out his lifetime and has established California Public Utilities Commission backwater to an independent world several Cal Alumni Association Schol- 1950+ from 1978–82. A father of three defending itself against the manipula- arships. He is now a “manny” for his (including two Berkeley graduates), tion of interstellar politics. “Class of 2034” grandson. Tommy Woo (B.S.’58 EE) worked Fong is now living at Saint Paul in high-tech jobs for over 10 years Towers overlooking Lake Merritt in Steven Dodge (B.S.’67 Eng. Phys.) before changing careers. For the past Oakland. received an M.S. in systems science

Farewell

This year, the college lost four professors to the Berkeley faculty in 1960. Thomas proposed emeriti, with more than a century of service and oversaw construction of the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National to the college. Laboratory and served as its first director from Arthur Bergen, professor emeritus of electrical en- 1983 to 1991. According to Uli Dahmen, director gineering and computer sciences, died in July 2014 of the NCEM and a former student of Professor at the age of 91. As an officer in the U.S. Army, Thomas, “He put Berkeley on the map and made Bergen served in World War II; after the war ended, it a worldwide center for electron microscopy that he served with the Signal Corps in the Army of attracted scientists from all over the world.” Thomas Occupation in Germany. He received his doctorate also achieved the rare honor of being elected into in electrical engineering from Columbia University both the National Academy of Sciences and the in New York. As a field engineer for Westinghouse, National Academy of Engineering. his first foreign assignment was in Brazil, where George Turin, professor emeritus of electrical he worked on the installation of a generator on a engineering and computer sciences, died in March river in the rainforest. Subsequent jobs took him to 2014 at the age of 84. Born in New York City in other remote locations in the U.S. and abroad. He 1930, Turin received his S.B. in 1951, S.M. in 1952 joined the Berkeley faculty in 1958 and retired in and his Sc.D. in 1956 from the Massachusetts 1991, serving as associate dean for 10 years in the Institute of Technology. Turin joined the Berkeley interim. faculty in 1960 and later served as EECS chair. In Chieh Hsu, professor emeritus of mechanical 1983, he became dean of the school of engineering engineering, died in July at age 92. Born in Beijing, and applied science at UCLA before returning to Hsu lived through the Japanese invasion of China in Berkeley. He helped found Teknekron, a Bay Area 1937, when he was forced to evacuate. After serv- firm designed to strengthen ties between high- ing in the army, Hsu was one of 60 students chosen technology firms and university research. His career in a nationwide competition for a scholarship to also included work at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in Arthur Bergen study abroad, in what he would later call the “lucky Lexington, MA and the Hughes Research Laboratories break which changed my whole life.” Hsu received in Culver City and Malibu, CA. his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1951 and went to work at IBM in New York. Returning to academia, his first appointment was at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1958, where he remained until he retired in 1991. He was the editor of the Journal of Applied Mechanics, invented the technique of cell-to-cell mapping for the analysis of dynamical systems and was honored with many awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. Gareth Thomas, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, died in February at age 81. Thomas grew up in Wales, obtained a doctorate in metallurgy at Cambridge University in 1955 Chieh Hsu George Turin Gareth Thomas

and brought his skills as an electron microscopist A rchive photos

20 engineering.berkeley.edu Your legacy gift secures the college’s future

Candy Penther and Howard Friesen met at Berkeley in 1948 and married three years later. Devoted to helping Berkeley’s students, the Friesens have funded nearly 300 undergraduate scholarships. They’re thinking ahead, too—their estate plans include provi- sions for endowed faculty chairs. Thanks to smart financial planning and expert advice from Berkeley’s gift planning special- ists, they found they could start funding three chairs now. Berkeley Engineering professors David Culler and Scott Shenker hold two of them. Thanks to the Friesens’ generosity and foresight, these distinguished faculty members are able to pursue groundbreaking research and mentor promising students. You too can benefit from a legacy gift, in several ways: • Make a larger gift to Berkeley Engineering than you thought possible • Reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes on the transfer of appreciated assets • Reduce your income tax immediately • Pass assets to family members or others at a reduced tax cost • Increase your current income or provide income for a family member eg S korpinski P

“We recognize that the excellence of Berkeley’s faculty needs to be supported. We’re glad to know we can count on the university to carry out our intentions.” —howard (b.s.’50 ee) and candy (b.a.’50 humanities) friesen

To include Berkeley Engineering in your plans, contact Jasmine Payne in College Relations at (510) 642-2097 or visit engineering.berkeley.edu/give. Berkeleyengineer nonprofit org. University of California, Berkeley u.s. postage College of Engineering PAID Office of Marketing & Communications university of california, Berkeley, CA 94720-1704 berkeley Noah Berger, Matt Beardsley photos Noah Berger, Change a life, change the world Support our students and their dreams with your gift to the Berkeley Engineering Fund.

Learn more and give online: engineering.berkeley.edu/give.